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Facebook, Instagram face Norwegian ban from tracking users for ads

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

Social media giants Facebook and Instagram will soon be temporarily banned in Norway from tracking users online to target them with advertising.The Norwegian Data Protection Authority ordered U.S. technology firm Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to stop showing users in Norway personalized ads based on their online activity and estimated locations. The ban kicks in from August, according to an order obtained exclusively by POLITICO and sent to Meta on July 14.Meta’s advertising practice on Facebook and Instagram currently involves the “processing of very private and sensitive personal data through highly opaque and intrusive monitoring and profiling operations,” wrote Norway’s Datatilsynet agency.The ban on so-called behavioral advertising will last three months, starting from August 4. Facebook and Instagram will be able to show people customized ads but only based on information given by users in the “about” section of their p...

King: Climate change is here, panic isn’t a fix

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

One of the luxuries of democracy is that we don’t have to listen. Or we can listen and hear what we want to hear.That is the story of the climate crisis, which is here.We have been warned over and over, sometimes as gently as a summer zephyr, and sometimes gustily, as with Al Gore’s tireless campaigning.Now the summer is upon us — with its intimations of worse to come.  And this message rings in our ears: The climate is changing — polar ice caps are melting; the sea level is rising; the oceans are heating up; natural patterns are changing, whether it be for sharks or butterflies; and we are going to have to live with a world that we, in some measure, have thrown out of kilter.The greenhouse effect has been known and argued about for a long time. Starting in 1970, I became aware of it as I started covering energy intensively. I have sat through climate sessions at places like the Aspen Institute, Harvard and MIT, where it was a topic and where the sources of the numbers were discusse...

‘Stephen Curry: Underrated’ doc not just a basketball story

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors’ star player, gets a documentary profile with a heart-wrenching twist in AppleTV+’s “Stephen Curry: Underrated.”Universally acknowledged as a magnificent shooter who ranks among pro basketball’s all-time greatest, Curry, 35, knew he had the guts and the goods way before anyone else (outside of his family) did.“I’ve been making documentaries for many years,” “Underrated” director Peter Nicks (“Home,” “The Force”) began in a Zoom interview. “The more we learned about his story, the more we saw that it’s deeper than just a basketball story.”Nicks saw his doc showered with praise at January’s Sundance Film Festival premiere.“The framework for the story was two-pronged. We knew that it was an origin story about his time at Davidson College, a coming of age saga which ended with the run to the 2008 NCAA Tournament, which I didn’t know too much about.“And then,” Nicks continued, “the present-day storyline was going to be him trying to fu...

5 tips to consider when planning a career change

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

The economic situation today is challenging, but changing careers is hard even in the best of times. For some, the journey starts with a big step like quitting their job. For others, it can be a series of little steps leading down a new path.Low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement, and feeling disrespected at work were the top reasons Americans quit their jobs in 2021, the year of the “great resignation,” according to a Pew Research Center survey released last year. Of those who quit, more than half said they changed their field of work or occupation.Whether you’re switching industries or exploring a passion you’ve always had, here are some practical tips from career coaches to make your transition easier.Assess your situationChanging careers looks different if you’re in between jobs versus employed. When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, the idea can feel out of reach, but there are ways to get there. If you’ve just been laid off...

Schoen: Will Gavin Newsom run for president in 2024?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

Gavin Newsom wants to run for president in 2024, that much is clear. The California governor would not be campaigning for President Joe Biden in red states with 16 months until the presidential election if he wasn’t trying to prove his own political bona fides and build a future base of national support for himself.Recently, Newsom traveled to Idaho, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than four to one, and is reportedly planning to visit other politically similar states, like Montana and Utah. The ostensible purpose of these trips is to tout Biden’s accomplishments and shore up enthusiasm for the Democratic Party, but Newsom’s underlying goal is undoubtedly self-promotion.Newsom’s feud with Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is further evidence of this. Back when DeSantis was considered the frontrunner for his party’s presidential nomination, Newsom smeared him in public speeches and attack ads over his far-right policies on abortion and tra...

Dear Abby: Living to please others makes life unbearable

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

Dear Abby: I’m a 54-year-old gay man who has spent his life making decisions with everyone else in mind. Every decision, life choice, relationship and career move has been based on how I’m perceived by friends and family.Currently, I’m living with my ex in my home. I’d like to live alone, but I feel responsible for his security. When I think about telling him I want to live separately, I feel like I’m letting him down. If I move, my family then has opinions on where I should live so I will stay in proximity to them. Also, we share dogs and I’m afraid if we split up the pack, I’m letting the dogs down.All of this pressure results in me doing nothing. I have been drinking more to shut out the noise. I have considered giving up alcohol, but that will also disappoint many in my family because they like to drink. Please help me! –Guilty Guy in MichiganDear Guy: If ever I’ve heard from someone who is in need of counseling, it is you &#...

Traffic on key bridge from Crimea to Russia’s mainland halted amid reports of explosions and deaths

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Traffic on the key bridge connecting Crimea to Russia’s mainland has been halted amid reports of explosions.The health ministry in Russia’s Krasnodar region, which lies at the eastern end of the bridge, said two people were killed in an unspecified accident on the bridge and their daughter was injured.The governor of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, announced the closure early Monday but did not specify the reason.News reports said local residents heard explosions before dawn, but there was no confirmation. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear, but Governor Sergei Aksyonov said he expected rail traffic on the bridge to resume within several hours.The 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge that was opened in 2018 is the main land connection between Russia and the Crimean peninsula.The bridge that spans the Kerch Strait was damaged in October by a truck bomb and required months of repairs before resuming full service. The bridge carries b...

Schools and stock market closed as Hong Kong braces for Typhoon Talim

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Schools and the stock market were closed in Hong Kong on Monday as Typhoon Talim swept south of the city. As the financial hub braced for rainy and windy weather, more than 100 people sought refuge at temporary shelters. Some government and ferry services were halted and various events were postponed. The city’s airport authority said 16 flights were canceled.The Hong Kong Observatory raised a No. 8 typhoon signal, the third-highest warning under the city’s weather system, at 12:40am on Monday. It was the first signal of its kind hoisted this year. The weather forecaster expects Talim — with maximum sustained winds reaching 140 kilometers (87 miles) per hour — to skirt within 300 kilometers (186 miles) to the south-southwest of Hong Kong on Monday morning. China’s National Meteorological Center forecast the typhoon would make landfall in the coastal regions of neighboring Guangdong province and Hainan province on Monday night before entering the Gulf of ...

Stock market today: Asian shares mostly lower after China reports weaker than expected growth in 2Q

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower on Monday after China reported weaker growth than forecast in the last quarter. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday and Hong Kong’s market closed due to a typhoon. U.S. futures and crude oil prices were lower. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.2% to 3,199.17 after China reported its economy grew at a 6.3% annual pace in April-June. That’s better than the 4.5% expansion in the January-March quarter but well below forecasts of over 7%. The economy is expected to slow further in coming months, though investors will be expecting moves from Beijing to prop up growth.So “the data will be viewed through the lens of how it will influence the policy decisions made at the upcoming Politburo meeting in late July,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. In Seoul, the Kospi shed 0.5% to 2,613.60, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged less than 0.1% lower, to 7,300.40. Bangkok’s SET was up less than...

Golf has long been about making connections. That won’t change in an LIV-PGA Tour world

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:20:53 GMT

Kerry Bowie’s daughters have dreams. Big ones. His 15-year-old wants to go to law school, maybe dabble in politics. His 12-year-old plans to be a business magnate.And while their schedules are jammed, at some point this summer Bowie plans to take them to Franklin Park in the heart of Boston, place a golf club in their hands and have them learn about a game whose influence extends far beyond fairways and greens.“There are some things people miss out on by not doing it,” Bowie says. “To be that young lady who plays golf, it changes things.”Especially in the corporate world, where the golf course — and sometimes the 19th hole, the driving range or the locker room — can open doors that shareholder meetings, business lunches, Zoom calls and cocktail mixers cannot. If Bowie needs to offer his daughters proof, he need only point to the way the tectonic plates under pro golf moved last month, when the acrimonious standoff between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf ended with a staggering deal ...